Tijuana celebrates as Xolos score big win

Midway through the second half, the layer of clouds covering Tijuana suddenly parted and the city was bathed in a torrent of sunshine. When the final whistle sounded a half-hour later, there was nothing but blue sky.

It was a moment glistening with symbolism.

Tijuana, finally, gets to bask in the glow of a championship.

Club Tijuana de Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente beat visiting Veracruz 1-0 on Saturday afternoon to claim the Apertura half of the Mexico’s second-division season and bring Primera Division soccer, once a faraway dream, into sharp focus.

How sharp? As Apertura champions, the Xolos are guaranteed a place in the promotion playoff next spring against the winner of the Clausura half of Mexico’s split season. And if the Xolos win the Clausura, well, there’s no need for a promotion playoff – they go straight to the Primera Division and games against Chivas and America.

“Señoras y señores,” the announcer at Estadio Caliente screamed as the game ended, his voice tinged with pride, “Tijuana es campeon!”

They are words that a city riddled with death and depravity, with violent drug wars and merciless poverty, has never heard in a major sport, which, in Mexico, is really only one.

“It’s something really big,” said Xolos starting midfielder Joe Corona, who attended Sweetwater High and then played at San Diego State for a year. “They’ve been waiting for this for a long time. It brings such happiness. You could feel how much the people wanted to win.”

The Xolos had won the final’s first leg 2-0 on Wednesday, meaning Veracruz had to win by at least two goals against a team that had allowed seven total goals in 20 regular-season and playoff games and hadn’t allowed any in their previous six straight. Meaning: It wasn’t going to happen.

Raul Enriquez erased what little doubt and anxiety remained with his 55th minute strike, making the two-leg aggregate 3-0. The fiesta was on.

Fans stood five and 10 deep along the rim of Estadio Caliente, which holds 20,000 (give or take a few thousand), straining their necks to catch a glimpse of history. For the last 10 minutes, everyone else was standing, too, chanting: “Ole, ole, ole … Xo-los, Xo-los.” Their clothes were moist from the constant beer showers amid the euphoria, their eyes moist from the tears welling in them.

And when the game ended, nobody bolted for the exits to beat the notorious post-game traffic around Estadio Caliente. They stayed to watch the trophy presentation and the Xolos players triumphantly touring it around the field, handing it to each other, kissing it, caressing it, hoisting it.

“This is why futbol is so important in Mexico, because it unites people for a common cause,” said Xolos vice president Gog Murguia, a USHDS alum (before it became Cathedral Catholic High). “The people in this city, they don’t have anything that belongs to them. Winning this is definitely much more important than we know.

“I don’t think I have the words to describe what it means.”

He didn’t have to. As people spilled into the twilight of the late afternoon, honking horns, waving red and black Xolos flags out of car windows, a group of grown men from one of the Xolos fan clubs stayed behind in the near-empty stadium – pounding on drums, dancing on the cement seats, hugging each other.

The game had been over for nearly an hour now, and it was getting dark. They weren’t leaving.